How Much Does It Cost To Restring a Tennis Racket?

Most club players would only consider having their racket restrung when they notice it is broken. And unless they are really professional players with a strong hit that break strings periodically, they might have suffered a deterioration in string performance without even knowing before going for restringing a tennis racket. It’s not uncommon for strings to lose their elasticity and tension over time, meaning that you will lose your ability to develop power and spin.

This change usually happens gradually, which means that the player will play worse and worse without even noticing, with a restringing of the racket improving their game quite significantly. But when it comes to going for a restring, many players get discouraged due to the potential cost.

The average cost to restring a tennis racket is somewhere around $40, although it might differ based on several factors, Players have spent anywhere between $20 and $90 with around $4 to $60 going toward the strings and $10 to $30 per racket going towards the labor.

If you’re serious about your playing skill, you should string your racket as many times per year as you spend days per week playing. You can find stringers online, in sports shops, or at your local club.

Cost Of New Strings (Usually Per Set)

You can find different types of tennis strings depending on your needs, ranging from very expensive natural multifilaments and natural gut to very cheap nylon. Premium string brands also charge premium prices, with one of the bigger names in the industry being Luxilon.

You can buy tennis strings on reels that contain anywhere between 100m and 200m or individual sets that contain just enough string for a single racket, which is around 12m. Keep in mind that it will be considerably more expensive to buy string in sets than in reels when it comes to a per-set price.

This is one way that stringers can make money, as they can charge the same or slightly more than the standard price for an individual set while paying markedly less by buying reels. As a customer, you normally have the option of buying your own string and just paying the stringer’s labor charge.

So in the end, it will come down to how often you need to have your tennis racket restrung, as you will be able to get the string cheaper if you buy a whole reel, but you will have to go through about 16 restrings to finish the reel.

You might also like our articles about the cost of building a tennis court, regripping golf clubs, or membership at the Seattle Tennis Club.

To get a better idea of what to expect when it comes to string prices, at the time this article is written, you can find sets of Luxilon Natural Gut 1.30 on Tennis Warehouse at $42,95, while an Ashaway Liberty Synthetic Gut 16 gauge costs $35 per 220m reel or $2,75 per set.

Although you will have reasonable playability with Ashaway string, it is on the lower end of the price range, which means it will not be as durable as you’d want. Natural gut is usually the most expensive string type you will find, while Luxilon 4G is a pretty good alternative for polyester strings. Of course, regardless of the string you go for, you will spend less when you buy the string yourself than getting it from the stringer.

Cost Of Labor (Usually Per Racket)

If you have the right equipment at hand, you can probably string a tennis racket yourself. The bad news is that you will need the skill to see any consistent results and a clean finish. And that’s not all. It is very likely to waste a couple of hours for the complete stringing job and end up with not very accurate tension if you’re a beginner and use a cheap machine.

This job, on the other hand, can be completed in roughly 30 minutes by an experienced stringer that has a better quality machine, producing a better tension than you’d be able to get.

You will usually pay somewhere between $10 and $30 per racket for the work of a professional stringer. This price will depend on several factors, including the experience of the stringer and the cost of living in your area.

Expect to spend several thousand dollars on a top-quality stringing machine. A stringer working in a shop will also have other costs that they have to cover that will further raise the costs. If you’re playing in a professional league, then you should consider getting a contract with a stringing company to do all your needed stringing for a particular tournament or throughout the year. For top-level players, these contracts end up costing $40,000 or more.

How Often Should You Restring A Racket?

Don’t just wait for a string to break before getting it restrung. If you do, you will notice your performance level declining for quite a while before you do this and you might start to blame your training, focus, or skills.

You will likely need to restring your racket after about 50 sessions. But, as a general rule, you should restring your racket as many times per year as you play per week.

More expensive string types like natural gut might also last less than other types. When it comes to polyester strings, although these are considered durable, they are known to lose most of their performance after 20 hours of play or so, which means that you will have to go for a regripping every two months.

Where Can You Have A Tennis Racket Restrung?

If you’re not a professional player, you might have never heard of available stringers in your area, so the best bet for you would be your local tennis club. And although you might be able to find a stringer, they aren’t necessarily professional enough or prepared to take on your particular racket type.

There are various specialists that offer these services and can be booked online, as well as some sports shops that have professionals hired for racket restringing. Don’t move away from a stringer you like that has decent prices. This is because it is rather hard to find one that only offers consistent results with no surprises.

If you think you’ll need a lot of restrings, then it might make sense to get your own machine, but only if you think you’ll be able to get your money back in time.

Do Stringers Replace Racket Grips?

A lot of stringers like to do all kinds of racket-related maintenance, like replacing the grips and the grommet strips. You should expect to be charged a small fee for this job, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use their services as long as you’re sure you can do it properly.

Conclusion

You will have to restring a tennis racquet regularly if you want to keep it at a high level of performance. You will find stringers charging anywhere from $20 to $90, but as soon as you find someone offering professional results for a good price, stick to them.